Sabah, pax Filipinas?

In the ‘50s, when I started traveling in Southeast Asia, I quickly realized how far ahead we were compared to our neighbors. We had so many things going for us while our neighbors, though culturally richer, were so far behind economically. Kuala Lumpur was a small kampong, surrounded by jungle and rubber plantations, Jakarta was a huge kampong. Bangkok’s tallest structure was the Wat Arun — temple to the sun; it dominated the skyline. Bangkok was crisscrossed with canals and Don Muang airport — a huddle of tin-roofed bodegas — to the Victory monument were stretches of emerald rice fields.

My idea then was for us to lead the region. Sukarno, who I met in Malacañang, said Indonesia deserved to be the leader. The sheer size of it gave it that status. We would then be the harbingers of modernity.

Whatever his faults, Sukarno was decisive. He did not hesitate to confront Malaysia to project Indonesia’s supremacy in the first regional grouping — the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA). And now this enlarging wrinkle in our relations with Malaysia, the followers of the Sultanate of Sulu returning to their homeland.

Way back in the ‘60s when the British gave the state of Sabah to Malaysia, an American diplomat criticized me for supporting our claim to Sabah. He said it was infringement on the rights of Malaysia — that I was, as he put it, engaged in land grabbing. I told him, is it right for Britain to claim colonies all over the world because it was powerful then? If Malaysia owns Sabah, why is it paying pittance as rent?

I know a bit of the history of this claim and was further enlightened about it when I covered the Kamlon campaign in the ‘50s. I was a month in Jolo and was a houseguest for a few days of Sultan Ismail Jamalul Kiram, The Sultan’s palace was actually a big nipa-roofed house in Maimbung and Maimbung a small unpretentious town.

Why did Sabah become this sorry mess?

Again, it is the fault of our leaders, their lack of foresight, their incompetence.

When the British returned the Turtle group of islands to us in 1946, I remember them asking for immigrants to Sabah to help in its modernization. Remember how Rizal aspired to settle there?

We were then just over 20 million with so much of Mindanao still jungle.

Sabah then was managed not by the British government, but by a quasi-commercial outfit, the British North Borneo Company, in the same way India was under the British India company.

Some three years ago, a former Abu Sayyaf member discussed Sabah with me.

May I digress and recall the “Jabidah massacre” in Corregidor in the ‘60s? I had, perhaps, my only vehement argument with Ninoy Aquino when he exposed it in media. I told him he was wrong, that he was an opportunist to have jeopardized our national interest. I told him he should have kept quiet, found out how that loudmouth Eddie Martelino should be punished, demanded that the victims be amply compensated. No whitewash but a lot of hush-hush.

Let me retell the sad story about the secret Marcos plan to infiltrate Sabah which I’d hoped would succeed. The project was headed by Eddie Martelino, an air force officer familiar to us in media; he wanted publicity so he purposely developed media connections. He posed as Abdul Latif, a slick operator patterned after Lawrence of Arabia. He reeked with charm and prattle. In choosing him to lead the infiltrators, Marcos showed himself to be a poor judge of character. The infiltrators rebelled against Martelino but before they could act, the army massacred them. One of the recruits escaped and went to Ninoy.

The rest is history. Malaysia started supporting the Moro rebels. Why Malaysia became an arbiter in the current Moro rebellion raises two questions: Why has Malaysia, which has a vested interest in the dispute, become an arbiter? Why did our leaders internationalize a purely domestic problem? In the first place, why is there such a problem at all?

What happened to Abdul Latif is a matter of speculation. Some say he was executed by the Malaysians, that his tongue was cut off first.

In the ‘50s, I was traveling alone all over Mindanao, Basilan, all the way to Tawi-Tawi with just a camera and a notebook. I always stayed in the houses of Moros.

I went around Lake Lanao, saw their famous folk dance, the Singkil, as it was performed by the folk and not university dance groups who morphed it into a razzle-dazzle show. I was gifted with a kris by the Mayor of Buluan, Datu Samad Mangelen, swam in the glass-clear waters off Sitangkai in Tawi-Tawi. I went as far as Jesselton and made a few trips to Sandakan, too, and realized that the Joloanons had more commercial contact with North Borneo than with the rest of Mindanao.

I knew very well the Moro stalwarts of my generation. The former senator Santanina Rasul — you should have seen her in full bloom. I do not think I will ever see again a wedding as lavish and as spectacular as the wedding of Emily Marohomsar in the mid-‘50s in Dansalan, now Marawi. Many Moro women are lovely — no, beautiful is the word. In that bygone era they did not wear veils — now, even in Manila, they wear the purdah, which covers the entire body with mere slits for the eyes. I consider this willful retrogression. And Senator Mamintal Tamano, the father of Adel Tamano — once he came to the bookshop with the book on the Moros, which I published. A distinguished Moro with me in the cover was his father. At the outbreak of hostilities in the ‘60s, we had a heated argument; I told him if the Moros insisted on becoming a separate nation, I’d propose genocide as the solution. He assured me that the ploy was for bargaining purposes only. I believed then and I still do that Moro poverty demands redress, but they, too, must rectify their mistakes.

Back to my Abu Sayyaf visitor.

I told him that they — the Tausugs should infiltrate Sabah. It is their right, too. If the government cannot help the Tausugs publicly, it should help them secretly. They must not let the claim be dormant merely because Malaysia is a member of ASEAN.

This is my personal view which I know many share but won’t talk about it — or if they do, only in whispers, because it doesn’t sound legal, because it is extremely unorthodox. But all through history, it has been practiced because diplomacy frowns upon it and formal negotiations fail. I sincerely think it is the moral right of a sovereign people — in this case the Tausugs — to act in whatever manner for their righteous grievance to be redressed. Morality and humanity demand it.

I suggested that this effort must be pure Tausug. They must not include the Maranaos or the Maguindanaos for obvious reasons. The Moros cannot even seem to unite within their own clans. There are several claimants to sultanate now. I remember Sultan Ismail Jamalul Kiram I very well. He was tall, slim, quite dark, with Arab features. It is easy to identify his heir through genetic testing. Looking at the pictures of Kiram III, I am sure he looks like the late Kiram I.

My Abu Sayyaf informant told me that they already have such an organization.

If this return to their ancient homeland is the result of this thinking, let it be.

In a much larger sense, the problem of Sabah is directly influenced by the duplicity of imperial Britain. For whatever devious reason, the dismantling of the British empire created divisions and violence due to ethnic and religious differences. The partition of India, for instance, brought death of millions; so, too, with the African colonies. The handing over of Sabah to Malaysia on a silver platter promoted regional destabilization. Divide et empera — that old imperial game is very much practiced to this very day.

It must also be remembered always that the Philippine claim to Sabah was opposed by the United States.

If Sabah impasse will lead to hostilities with Malaysia, so be it. I am too old to join the army but will do so if they accept the services of an octogenarian. Thousands of Filipinos are menials in Sabah. They are often abused and humiliated.

Ever heard of “lebensraum”?

Ninoy Aquino was a friend; I knew his faults, which were outweighed by his virtues. I had hoped his son would take after him and, for sure, he is so much — to use a frayed cliché — a genuine chip off the old block. As I said way back, weak leaders are pummeled into insignificance by history but strong leaders make history themselves. To maintain his growing/glowing status as a leader, he must not deny the Tausugs and us — our pride and rights. He must never, never side with Malaysia at our expense. But at the same time, if we must have self-respect, we should pay for it.